Anglicisation of Italian Place Names
By Dion Protani
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Latest update: 20 October 2023
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Well, we're all used to rattling off the names of the most famous places in Italy: Rome, Venice and Naples are among the first that spring to mind. We know they're different in Italian, and when we see them written down, we have no problem recognising them.
Of course, it's the same in reverse: Italians call London Londra, they call Paris Parigi and more confusingly, they call Munich Monaco. |
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So why does this happen? If we're able to write the names down using the same letters that we have in our own alphabet, why is there a need to change the whole name of the city?
One theory put forward is that the names should continue to have their original meaning; for example, Florence in Italian is Firenze which comes from an earlier version of the city's name Florentia, which roughly means "flowering". The French version of Florentia was Florence and years later the English started to use it as well.
We can see that within two sentences, the first theory really falls flat on its face; the word Florence simply doesn't mean flowering in English. If we analyse each place name we'll no doubt find some interesting historical events that led to them having an anglicised version, but it's still very doubtful that we'd find a good or logical reason for it still to be necessary today.
Another theory is that it's more difficult for English-speakers to pronounce foreign words and they therefore need the English version. So let's put this one to the test.
Exercise one
See if you can pronounce the following two words:
Roma
Napoli
If you've successfully negotiated that, as I would hope most of you were able to, it then puts the second theory to bed as well.
There are in fact some letters in the Italian alphabet that aren't in the English version, so could this finally be a valid reason?
The Italian letters that we don't have in English are the accented versions of the vowels, which when written, denote where the stress should be when pronouncing the word.
So we have à, è , ì, ò and ù. The accented e can also point forwards instead of backwards like this: é.
To give this argument more strength, we should also bear in mind that the Italian alphabet only has 21 letters (not including the accented vowels), with the 5 missing being: J, K, W, X and Y.
So surely this must be the reason we continue to use anglicised versions of Italian place names. Let's have a look at the list in full:
Cities
Rome - Roma
Milan - Milano
Venice - Venezia
Naples - Napoli
Florence - Firenze
Genoa - Genova
Padua - Padova
Mantua - Mantova
Leghorn - Livorno (this is my favourite: it's quite preposterous!)
Syracuse - Siracusa
Regions
Tuscany - Toscana
Piedmont - Piemonte
Lombardy - Lombardia
Latium - Lazio
The Marches - Le Marche
Apulia - Puglia
Sicily - Sicilia
Sardinia - Sardegna
Oh and let's not forget this one:
Italy - Italia
As we can see, none of the Italian place names contain any of the accented vowels that don't exist in English. On the flip side, the English versions do contain letters that don't exist in the Italian alphabet: namely the letter Y in Tuscany, Lombardy and Sicily.
So as English-speakers let's just ask ourselves: are we unable to pronounce, read or write any of the Italian versions of the place names?
The answer would seem to be a resounding "no", so why does it still happen? Wouldn't it be easier to look on a map and see the name written in its original language? Would it help for example, people driving to Firenze on the motorway to know exactly what that place is?
If anyone has a good theory to put forward, I will happily publish it below my article and we can start the debate. Please drop me a line via the info@italyreview.com mailbox with your theories.
Dion Protani
Thursday 28 October 2021
One theory put forward is that the names should continue to have their original meaning; for example, Florence in Italian is Firenze which comes from an earlier version of the city's name Florentia, which roughly means "flowering". The French version of Florentia was Florence and years later the English started to use it as well.
We can see that within two sentences, the first theory really falls flat on its face; the word Florence simply doesn't mean flowering in English. If we analyse each place name we'll no doubt find some interesting historical events that led to them having an anglicised version, but it's still very doubtful that we'd find a good or logical reason for it still to be necessary today.
Another theory is that it's more difficult for English-speakers to pronounce foreign words and they therefore need the English version. So let's put this one to the test.
Exercise one
See if you can pronounce the following two words:
Roma
Napoli
If you've successfully negotiated that, as I would hope most of you were able to, it then puts the second theory to bed as well.
There are in fact some letters in the Italian alphabet that aren't in the English version, so could this finally be a valid reason?
The Italian letters that we don't have in English are the accented versions of the vowels, which when written, denote where the stress should be when pronouncing the word.
So we have à, è , ì, ò and ù. The accented e can also point forwards instead of backwards like this: é.
To give this argument more strength, we should also bear in mind that the Italian alphabet only has 21 letters (not including the accented vowels), with the 5 missing being: J, K, W, X and Y.
So surely this must be the reason we continue to use anglicised versions of Italian place names. Let's have a look at the list in full:
Cities
Rome - Roma
Milan - Milano
Venice - Venezia
Naples - Napoli
Florence - Firenze
Genoa - Genova
Padua - Padova
Mantua - Mantova
Leghorn - Livorno (this is my favourite: it's quite preposterous!)
Syracuse - Siracusa
Regions
Tuscany - Toscana
Piedmont - Piemonte
Lombardy - Lombardia
Latium - Lazio
The Marches - Le Marche
Apulia - Puglia
Sicily - Sicilia
Sardinia - Sardegna
Oh and let's not forget this one:
Italy - Italia
As we can see, none of the Italian place names contain any of the accented vowels that don't exist in English. On the flip side, the English versions do contain letters that don't exist in the Italian alphabet: namely the letter Y in Tuscany, Lombardy and Sicily.
So as English-speakers let's just ask ourselves: are we unable to pronounce, read or write any of the Italian versions of the place names?
The answer would seem to be a resounding "no", so why does it still happen? Wouldn't it be easier to look on a map and see the name written in its original language? Would it help for example, people driving to Firenze on the motorway to know exactly what that place is?
If anyone has a good theory to put forward, I will happily publish it below my article and we can start the debate. Please drop me a line via the info@italyreview.com mailbox with your theories.
Dion Protani
Thursday 28 October 2021